Mark Trahant is writing about Pakistan. Pakistan presents a unique opportunity. The next president needs to invest more U.S. resources toward the relationship with Pakistan and help improve that country’s democratic infrastructure. This is especially true in the tribal areas where terrorist groups would prefer that we do nothing.

We’re also reminding people to vote Tuesday in this new blanket primary election.

It’s in the P-I.

A couple of international stories will be on the editorial board agenda this morning — developments in Pakistan and Georgia.

“They want to impeach me now. Why do they want to do it?” Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf said in a televised address in which he denied any wrongdoing. “Do they want to cover their failure?”

Their failure? This is a general who assumed he knew more than the people of his country — while the United States traded our support of democracy for a supposed ally on the “war on terror.”

This does not make the road ahead any easier for Pakistan. A new president will need to be chosen within a month. Of course “messy” is part democracy. The promise of open government, a people’s government, is elusive.

I support mile-a-minute. Time and distance. You figure it’s 30 miles from A to B, and it’ll take you 30 minutes to get there, traffic and weather permitting etc. 60MPH is a speed that trucks can maintain, and if everyone does about 60, then there won’t be the rubber-band thing with traffic slowdowns etc. Traffic jams kill MPG too. But, I also think that when you get OUT of town, it should go ahead and be 65-70 where feasible.
And, I also think(not that anyone cares, but I’ll say it anyway) that there shouldn’t be 5-lane freeways anymore. Neck it down to two. Probably half of those trucks out there could park their trailers on flatbed cars and move their freight by rail that way instead. Also save on road wear.

Another take from pahart:

Driving at 55/60 allows vehicles to be in their highest gear and cruising at lowest rpm to keep at that speed. This gives the best fuel economy available for any car or truck. True, cruising a long stretch of road at 55 can seem interminable, but hey, turn up the sound system and groove to it.

The old argument that 55 would “slow the economy” was the same argument used to justify the Concorde SST airliner, and see where it went! Just too expensive to fly, and it was eventually killed. London to New York in four hours. Like, hey, telecomute or video conference. We could all adjust to a slower pace. It won’t kill us.